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We also use Basecamp on a daily basis for specific project tracking.
All in all, we are pretty "integrated" using this rather minimal set of technology.
I'm one of a few remote developers on a team of 15. Daily standups, dialed in on planning meetings and the odd visit for project kick off meetings all help to make me feel a little more integrated into the team. In saying that, I'll never be as integrated as the people that are in the office everyday, but I can live with that for the flexibility remote working gives me. I should also note that I don't work from home,…
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/CategoryView.aspx?category=Rem...
Part of the problem stems from the framing of the question. Flipping it on its head as "how do you integrate local developers into a team?" highlights how easy it is to believe the team's core must be determined geographically rather than functionally.
Reframing remote work as the normative context then places responsibility for accommodation on the people who have the habits that make integration difficult.
Start by creating a remote-first culture. Everyone should think "remote" first. Thus it should never matter if a local employee is working from home, the HQ, from the other side of the world. Make all work processes remote friendly. That should be step zero when considering hiring a remote person regardless of the reason. The goal should be to avoid a two-tiered culture. Some differences will always be there but if the spirit of the remote-friendly culture is there integration is pretty fluid.
Thus (near) all communication happens in Slack/Hipchat/etc. Group meetings, when including remote people, happen in video conf / Hangouts. Shared Google docs to collaborate on. Have in-person meetups 2-4 x a year for beneficial face-time and for people to get to know each other better on a personal level. When a new person is hired, have them do 20 min 1-on-1's with all team members to get to know each other and their job role. Have monthly video conf/hangouts on non-work technical topics where people rotate presenting.
The biggest element is the decision to be a fully remote team. Which honestly is a major retention benefit as well. Why should local employees not enjoy the same flexibility to work as needed remotely?
Although I missed many of the perks of working remote I felt pretty connected socially. What I discussed with my colleagues they also found it ok.
As said this is not for everyone, but I look forward to technologies that enable people being in same place remotely.
I'm one of a few remote developers on a team of 15. Daily standups, dialed in on planning meetings and the odd visit for project kick off meetings all help to make me feel a little more integrated into the team. In saying that, I'll never be as integrated as the people that are in the office everyday, but I can live with that for the flexibility remote working gives me. I should also note that I don't work from home,…
I like you're thought about the future of the work environment. Can you tell me, from your experience, how easy was for your company to accept for you to work remotely? I work for a startup in the UK, with a very small team, and can't find an easy way to apply for that.
Picking the right motivation will help, "I can't be bothered coming into the office everyday" won't work but "I'm wanting to move away from the city for X/to do Y" gives you a good reason to be asking about it. If you truly feel like remote is for you, you'll have to present the case at some point to your boss, even if informally at first. If they are against the idea, you can start looking for a new, remote, job.
Beyond that, you have to practice the technical bits, conduct all meetings on a google hangout. If people don't offer remotes that opening to talk, they have to make it.
Other than that daily stand-ups where remote workers are included, group chat such as slack or hipchat as the main communication for both work-related and non-work-related. help the remote workers feel they are part of the general conversation.
Not good general advice maybe, but I had good success working remote with more like telepresence setup. I had small monitor in the corner of the office and people could walk up to it and speak to me. I could also overhear quite a bit of the chatter in the room. It was very important that people could see me on the screen. Although I missed many of the perks of working remote I felt pretty connected socially. What I d…